Surplus: The Food Waste Guide for Chefs

By Vojtech Vegh

Do you know how much food waste you create every day? Probably not. But it's much more than you think.

Surplus: The food waste guide for chefs is a thought-provoking book for every chef that wants to effectively reduce and prevent food waste in a restaurant's kitchen. Written by the founder of the first zero-waste vegan restaurant in the world, it includes a few short stories from the restaurant, and covers the topic of food waste and plant-based cooking from motivation and mindset tips, to practical steps of food waste prevention.

Believing that the food waste problem can be solved by combining a mindset change with technical knowledge, this book includes words of motivation and also an ingredient directory with tips on how to use every part of an ingredient, and a few zero-waste and plant-based recipes for inspiration.

The methods and steps described in the book can be applied in every professional kitchen, whether it's a small bistro or a large restaurant. While this book is focused on the hospitality industry and professional chefs, the content provides a different viewpoint on the food waste solutions that can be valuable to anyone interested in reducing food waste or introducing plant-based options on the menu.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vojtech Vegh
• Release date: Feb 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201297084

Book preview

Introduction

The most dangerous phrase in our language is 'We've always done it this way'

- Grace Murray Hopper

Why

I went and I did. There is no more to it. I have opened my own zero-waste and vegan restaurant. In Cambodia. On my own. Something seemingly impossible, coming from a small Central European country and from a poor background. One day I struggle to put food on my plate, and the next day I am standing in a full dining room on the opening night of what was my dream coming true at a time.

Opening a restaurant is one thing. Opening a zero-waste and vegan restaurant is another. Doing it all in Cambodia is borderline mental. The most frequent question I get is ‘Why?’. Why all this? Why a zero-waste restaurant? Why vegan food? Why in Cambodia? And why does any of this matter?

My interest in food waste started after working in a few high-profile restaurants. You know, perfectly shaped cubes of potato for garnish, fillet of fish trimmed to a square, and only selecting the so-called ‘best’ and most beautiful pieces for cooking. Treating vegetables as if they were ranked by their purchasing costs and discarding everything that didn’t fit the image of ‘perfect’.

Being raised in a tiny village and growing produce for ourselves, it was mind-boggling to see edible food being wasted. In our little garden, we would sow the seeds in spring, water the garden every morning, and take care of the plants to be able to enjoy harvesting food in our backyard that sustained us through the summer. We’ve preserved all the excess and made sure to pick off every tomato, even the oddly shaped ones and even the very last ones.

I remember my very first job in England right after my 20th birthday. Christmas was coming and turkeys, the traditional English Christmas dinner, were being delivered to the kitchen. We were getting the whole animal, and to my surprise, the chef had cut off the thighs and the breasts and discarded the rest. The massive wings of the turkey had lots of meat on it and the whole carcass were going to be wasted.

I grabbed a black bin bag and took a few of the carcasses to my staff accommodation above the restaurant, where I stuffed the freezer full with turkey crowns. I got some weird looks, but I had no doubt that edible food does not belong to the bin.

Growing up with a natural appreciation for food, it was disheartening to see the amount of food waste that is created in a restaurant’s kitchen. As a young inexperienced chef, I wasn’t sure what to do about it. I felt like my voice was not strong enough to make a change. The hospitality world seemed to be on autopilot.

I did what I do best. I decided to go against the flow and start from scratch. To forget all the ‘shoulds’ and ‘have tos’ and do what makes the most sense. To bring the ‘restore’ back to the restaurant and to reimagine what a restaurant means.

I’ve had to open my own zero-waste restaurant to prove that indeed, eliminating food waste in the hospitality business is totally possible. And we are only getting started.

Who

I’ve never aspired to be a chef. I sucked at college, skipped classes, and I wasn’t even interested in food until pretty late when I was already working in the kitchen. Even then, what got me hooked first was the thrill of the kitchen work, not the food itself.

It was only after a few years when I had for some reason started questioning what we did in the kitchen. I disliked some of the processes. I disagreed with popular opinions. I didn’t like some of the ‘standards’ and my interest in the food itself was growing. I’ve had tons of questions, but I couldn’t get the answers.

I was trained in kitchens with very militarist-style leadership, where mental and physical abuse was a standard. I’ve been in the kitchen since I was 16 and it was tough. I’ve spent three years as an apprentice in the kitchen where I definitely didn’t learn how to cook but was taught a great discipline and order, which ended up being far more valuable in the future.

I am also naturally curious and ambitious, and I’ve spent almost ten years travelling and working in multiple countries to gain as much experience as possible. Always observing and absorbing every bit of information, I like to challenge the way we think about food.

After all those years and all the travelling, I have realised that I use my cooking as a means of communication. Food is my language. I talk through food. And I want to speak.

What

Food waste is a delicate topic. Some pretend they don't have it; others act like it's okay to waste half of all the food that they purchased, but few have it actually sorted out.

This book comes as an answer to the excessive food waste created by the hospitality industry. It’s focused on the hospitality industry professionals, owners, management and professional chefs as I believe that the importance of food waste prevention is still underestimated.

This book is not meant to be a cookbook; it’s rather a cook’s book. I did not intend to write a cookbook, as I wanted to provide a guiding hand on how to approach zero-waste cooking in a professional kitchen with some practical tips.

While there are few complete recipes featured, they serve more as an example of zero-waste cooking to get a better picture about using some of the ingredients, and they can be easily adapted to your needs and possibilities in the kitchen.

I am also sharing a few thoughts and perspectives on plant-based cooking as it’s an important part of the zero-waste approach in the kitchen. I am not vegan myself, but I know that reducing our meat consumption is crucial for sustainable cooking and living, thus goes hand in hand with a zero-waste mindset.

If you don’t like reading books, then this one is for you. While I was writing this book, I’ve kept my mind on all the busy chefs, managers, owners and everyone who often don’t have time to read books. I wrote very short chapters so it’s easy to digest and read, even if you can only spare a few minutes of your time for reading.

Stories of Surplus

The route to the restaurant

I almost opened a luxury bed and breakfast in a ten-bedroom villa. I was travelling in South East Asia once again and was visiting Cambodia.

It seemed like a perfect place, and I was looking at a nice property. Large villa, nice garden, beautiful pool, pool bar with kitchen, terrace with seating, reception building, all on a quiet street tucked away from the noise. A little serene oasis. I loved it.

I was already daydreaming about serving luxurious breakfasts in the garden to my guests, offering fancy finger foods as a pool bar snack and serving multi-course dinner menus on the terrace.

Everything homemade, everything local, with super attentive service and a beautiful setting. All you need after a long day exploring the nearby temples and walking through the streets of the city.

While I was visualising all the ways how this would be a zero-waste haven with no single-use plastics or any food waste, I luckily woke up from my daydreaming.

I realised that this property would need an ungodly amount of money to put it in a state where it could be called anything close to ‘luxurious’. Every visit to the property had uncovered a new problem, and I quickly came to the conclusion that I would have to let go of this opportunity.

Glad I did. Soon after this decision, I became more clear-headed and re-evaluated my ambitions. I knew one thing for sure: I want to provide exceptional hospitality service, in whatever form.

The thought of owning a bed and breakfast was really attractive as it would give me the ability to cover (almost) every aspect of the guest’s experience and provide them with true hospitality.

But I also knew that opening a restaurant first would be a much more viable idea and something I could perhaps pull off on my own in the worst case. I dropped the plans for any form of accommodation and started subconsciously preparing for the restaurant.

Let’s move to Cambodia

I spent the next few months travelling and moving around, constantly looking for opportunities when I decided to settle in Cyprus for some time.

It was another sunny morning when I woke up feeling that there was probably nothing to wait for as miracles don’t happen. I knew that there was also no such thing as the ‘right time’. The right time is created. So, I created it that day.

I can recall the exact moment when I made the decision not to wait anymore and I claimed the fact that I am going to open my own restaurant.

I made the decision that I will drop everything, fly to Cambodia once again, find a suitable property, open a restaurant and move to Cambodia. I want to note that I was twenty-six years old at that time.

My most common answer to anyone concerned was ‘I don’t know, I’m just gonna do it’. I certainly had a very questionable plan.

A few weeks later, I was on my flight to Cambodia. I also had a few internships organised at that time in Europe, so I could only go for three weeks. The plan was to meet as many people as possible and to get the